In Tamil Nadu, BJP leader held for tweet on CPI(M) MP

On June 10, Suryah, BJP state secretary, had tweeted that “Viswanathan, a councillor of Ward 12 of Madurai Pennadam Town panchayat”, had coerced a Scheduled Caste sanitation worker to dispose of faecal water. He said the worker had later developed an allergic reaction and died. Suryah had tagged the CPI(M)’s Madurai MP, Su Venkatesan, in his tweet, and questioned his silence.

“A sanitation worker’s life was tragically lost due to the actions of a Communist councillor, yet Madurai MP Su Venkatesan remains eerily silent! The foul stench of your deceitful politics of division surpasses even that of the cesspool, my comrade. Find a path to humane existence,” Suryah had tweeted.

According to a senior police officer, Suryah was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed by M Ganesan, the CPI(M) Madurai Urban district secretary, who accused him of posting false information.

“The complaint from Ganesan said Madurai does not have a panchayat named Pennadam, nor is there a councillor named Viswanathan. Moreover, no such incident involving a sanitation worker’s death has been reported. Ganesan accused Suryah of sparking social unrest by spreading false and unchecked information with an intent to incite caste conflicts,” the officer said.

Meanwhile, independent sources confirmed that a manual scavenger had died in Pennadam, which is a place near Cuddalore, approximately 240 kms from Madurai. According to sources, the sanitation worker had succumbed to a stroke about 10 days after being employed for a manual scavenging job at Pennadam.

Following Suryah’s tweet, in which he had attached a written statement on his letterhead as BJP’s general secretary, many had pointed out the error. But Suryah did not withdraw the statement or his tweet.

Suryah has been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), Section 504 (intentional insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace), Section 505(1)(b) and 505(1)(c) (statements conducing to public mischief), and the Information Technology (IT) Act Section 66 (D) (cheating by personation using computer resources).

Condemning the arrest, state BJP president K Annamalai said: “His only mistake was to expose the nasty double standards of the Communists, allies of the DMK.” He accused Chief Minister M K Stalin of demonstrating autocratic tendencies and fostering an environment of lawlessness, adding that such arrests wouldn’t deter the BJP.

Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar said CM Stalin was on a quest to mirror the authoritarianism of his namesake, “the original Stalin”, disregarding the freedom and rights of the people.

Responding to the BJP’s statements, Madurai MP Venkatesan asked: “Can’t you even do the basic check to find out if there is a place called Pennadam in Madurai before issuing a statement? Rumours are your weapon, truth is ours.”

In a reply, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “Is Suryah’s arrest false news? Or demanding the release of our leader Suryah spreads fear? We should all strive to find fair solutions to social problems. It is our duty to work towards resolving people’s issues. We do not need weapons for this job, only the truth.”

Meanwhile, a top officer attached to Tamil Nadu Police’s cyber crime wing said another BJP leader, Amar Prasad Reddy, while sharing a news report of girls staging a road blockade demanding basic amenities for their school, had erroneously tagged Stalin. “The protest happened in Puducherry, not in Tamil Nadu. Reddy, who initially refused to take down the misleading tweet for several hours, deleted it soon after Suryah’s arrest,” he said.